Over the past few days, my Son has shown signs of disfluency. I had to kindly remind myself that disfluency can be a normal part of speech and language development. I thought the following information may be helpful to others:
NORMAL DISFLUENCY vs. STUTTERING
Normal Disfluency:
During the language learning years, between ages 3 and 5, most children go through a period of normal disfluency. This is characterized by hesitations in the flow of speech and whole word repetitions at the beginnings of sentences: e.g., “I, I, I wanna go to the park.”
Most researchers feel that this early disfluency is attributed to burst of language learning during which the child needs a little extra time to formulate ideas into sentences.
The normal disfluent child:
• Does not show any awareness of his or her disfluency.
• Does not demonstrate extraneous non-verbal behavior such as eyeblinks,
head jerks, etc…
• Has fewer than 5 disfluent words per 100 word sample.
How to react:
• Pay attention to your child when he/she is talking.
• Don’t rush. Stop and listen.
• Keep your own speech slow.
• Don’t interrupt or complete sentences.
• Never suggest talking in a different way (e.g. “slow down,” “start over.”)
• Calmly reuse your child’s words in a natural manner, e.g.,
o Child: “He, He, He broke my toy.”
o Parent: “He broke your toy? Where is it? Let’s try to fix that
toy.”
Stuttering:
Most preschool children who stutter do so only temporarily.
You should be concerned if you notice the following behaviors:
• Child shows awareness of his or her disfluencies (e.g., by refusing to
talk, avoiding certain speaking situations or by telling you that talking is
hard).
• Child demonstrates non-verbal behaviors such as foot tapping, eye
blinks, head jerks.
• Child demonstrates any of the following types of disfluencies for more
than a month:
o Repetitions: e.g. “I want a ba ba ba ba banana” or “uh uh uh uh
I’m hungry.”
o Prolongations: e.g. “mmmmmmommy”
o Blocks: Stopping speech at the beginning of a word and
“exploding” into the next word (e.g. “I want…(pause)…butter.”)
These first three signs - repeating sounds, prolonging sounds or blocking sounds - may occur occasionally in nearly all children. If they begin to occur too frequently in many speaking situations and begin to affect your child’s ability to communicate, you should be concerned.
Stuttering is most often viewed as a learned behavior that can be corrected if caught early enough.
How to react:
• Talk more slowly.
• Use simple language and short sentences.
• Listen patiently so that your child knows it’s OK to take time to talk. Do
not interrupt.
• Avoid commands such as “slow down” or “start over.”
• Take care not to convey subtle disapproval of your child’s speech (e.g.,
frowning, lifted eyebrows).
• As fewer questions of your child. Try commenting on what he or she is
thinking or feeling (e.g., “I bet you want to go outside after lunch.”)
• Seek professional help. Your pediatrician is a good place to start.
